Proteolysis in mitochondrial preparations and in lysosomal preparations derived from rat liver

A method of preparing rat liver mitochondria with low residual contamination by lysosomal proteases is described. Preparations of mitochondria are divided into two equal portions, one of which is supplemented with a lysosomal fraction. The addition of the lysosomal fraction causes an increase in proteolysis of between 26- and 56-fold at pH 5.0 in four similar experiments. This increase matches the increase in the lysosomal marker beta-glucuronidase and indicates that all proteolysis at pH 5.0 is due to enzymes of the lysosomal fraction. Above pH 7.0, the addition of a lysosomal supplement increases proteolysis by 1.5- to 5-fold only, suggesting that in the absence of a lysosomal supplement very little of the observed proteolysis is due to enzymes of lysosomal origin. A method of calculating the contribution to total proteolysis of enzymes of the lysosomal fraction or of the mitochondrial fraction is described. The calculations show that at pH 7.0 and above, more than 93% of the observed proteolysis is due to enzymes originating in the mitochondrial fraction. The results support the view of other workers that rat liver mitochondria contain an endogenous neutral proteolytic system capable of degrading mitochondrial proteins to acid-soluble products.